"Beliveau’s study estimates that the Villages will pay more than $13 million in impact fees and inspection fees, building permits and the like the city will need to add and equip an estimated nine police officers at a cost of more than $1 million the first year and $750,000 per year annually. Improvements to the city’s water system will cost more than $3.5 million."
Does that sentence from the article not suggest that inspection fees are going to the local community? Otherwise how is that 13 million linked to the cost of increased police etc unless it is an asset to be drawn against.
If Lake County is granting the building permits and those permits require inspections, as they must, wouldn't Lake County have to maintain responsibility for enforcement? In the event of failures in the new construction which could in part be a result of inadequate inspections would Sumter County be responsible for those failures and the inevitable lawsuits if it provided the inspection services? The perception that Lake county is unable to do its own permitting and inspection would reflect poorly on Lake. If this project is going to go forward there would seem to be no reason that Lake County couldn't hire additional qualified persons to do whatever permitting and inspections are required. If Mr. Morse wouldn't accept that situation I would wonder why. I cannot imagine a county ever ceding control of one of its central functions to a smaller neighboring county.
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